Septimus Warren Smith -
A World War I veteran suffering from shell shock,
married to an Italian woman named
Lucrezia. Though he is insane,
Septimus views English society in much the same way as
Clarissa
does, and he struggles, as she does, to both maintain his privacy
and fulfill his need to communicate with others. He shares so many traits
with Clarissa that he could be her double. Septimus is pale, has
a hawklike posture, and wears a shabby overcoat. Before the war
he was a young, idealistic, aspiring poet. After the war he regards human
nature as evil and believes he is guilty of not being able to feel.
Rather than succumb to the society he abhors, he commits suicide.